NewsWrap
for the week ending March 18, 2006
(As broadcast on This Way Out program #938, distributed 3-20-06)
[Written this week by Lucia Chappelle and Greg Gordon, with thanks to Graham
Underhill and Rex Wockner]
Reported this week by Sheri Lunn and Charls Hall
Overriding a presidential veto, the parliament of the Czech Republic has
approved a law legalizing same-gender partnerships. 101 members of the lower
house -- the minimum number required for the override -- voted this week to
grant gay and lesbian couples rights comparable to heterosexual marriage in health
care, inheritance, and child-rearing, but not adoption. It was the fourth
try for activists pushing the bill, which enjoyed the enthusiastic support of
Social Democrat Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek as it passed the lower house in
December and the Senate in January. When President Vaclav Klaus of the
right-wing Civic Democrats vetoed the bill in February, calling it an excessive
intrusion into private life and an affront to the traditional family, its supporters
took to the streets of Prague. Public opinion polls found most Czechs
favoring registered partnerships, and Paroubek called the veto one of Klaus' worst
errors as president. Although the veto was overturned, the new law is expected
to be a key issue in June elections there. While some activists admitted that
the law was a compromise, Gay and Lesbian League spokesperson Martin Strachon
told Agence France Presse that it made gays and lesbians "normal members of
society." Noting that the Czech Republic is now the second post-communist
country, after Slovenia, to recognize queer families, Patricia Prendiville of the
International Lesbian and Gay Association-Europe said, "We believe the Czech
example will help other post-communist countries to overcome prejudice towards
lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and demystify the myth that
LGBT rights are 'decadent' Western values."
Australia's Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone announced earlier this
month that her government will recognize the same-gender partners of skilled
migrant workers who want to move there. The decision means that queer couples
will be able to stay in Australia as long as one partner has the right to work in
the country.
Same-gender couples were previously forced to apply for visas separately,
while heterosexual couples were automatically allowed joint entry into the
country.
According to a spokesperson for Vanstone's office, "The fact that couples
were not treated together in the same application created some uncertainty for
them, and a potential loss for Australia of highly skilled migrants... This
change will remove this anomaly."
A topless woman bather and 2 men kissing in a park are featured in a film
that will be shown to prospective immigrants to the Netherlands. They'll then
have to pass a 15-question entrance test, in Dutch, covering the language and
culture of Holland. Those who pass the exam will be required to complete two
citizenship tests during the next five years -- all this according to a report
this week in the London Times.
But Muslim leaders in Holland say the film is offensive. "It really is a
provocation aimed to limit immigration," said Abdou Menebhi, the Moroccan-born
director of an organization that helps new immigrants settle in the country.
"It has nothing to do with the rights of homosexuals," he continued. "Even
Dutch people don’t want to see that."
However, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, a socialist member of the Dutch parliament’s
immigration committee, said that the film had been created to help prepare
would-be immigrants for the country's "open-minded" attitudes on issues such as
homosexuality. "We have lots of homo-discrimination," he said, "especially by
Muslim youngsters who harass gay men and women on the streets. It is an issue
here."
As Shiite and Sunni Iraqi Muslims move closer to civil war, the country's
most influential Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has reportedly issued
a fatwa calling for genocide against Sunnis, and death to all homosexuals.
On his Web site, used to communicate with the dominant Shiite masses throughout
Iraq, Sistani specifically urges his followers to kill gays and lesbians in
the "worst, most severe way".
Speaking on behalf of OutRage!, a British queer advocacy group, exiled gay
Iraqi Ali Hili told reporters, "Evidence we have received from our underground
gay contacts inside Iraq suggests intensified homophobic abuse, threats,
intimidation and violence by fundamentalist supporters of Sistani," adding, "He
gives the killers theological sanction and encouragement."
Meanwhile, the head of New York City's St. Patricks Day Parade, John
Dunleavy, compared gays and lesbians to prostitutes, Nazis and Klansmen in defending
the ban on the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization -- or ILGO -- from marching
under their banner on March 17th in what is reportedly the largest such
parade in the world. The annual display down Fifth Avenue, organized by the Roman
Catholic Church-based Ancient Order of Hibernians, was ruled a "private event"
in previous court decisions upholding bans on self-identified queers marching
in both New York City and Boston parades.
"If an Israeli group wants to march in New York, do you allow neo-Nazis into
their parade?" Dunleavy asked in an interview with the Irish Times. "If
African-Americans are marching in Harlem, do they have to let the Ku Klux Klan into
their parade?... If we let the ILGO in, is it the Irish Prostitute
Association next?"
Newly elected City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, the first open lesbian to
lead the council and herself an Irish American, boycotted the Manhattan march
after failing to persuade the Hibernians to lift their ban. Of Dunleavy's
comments, she told the Daily News, "They are so outrageous, I don't even think
they dignify a response."
"Welcome to pure, unadulterated homophobia - it's not pretty, is it?" said
Alan Van Capelle of the Empire State Pride Agenda. "It's shocking that Mr.
Dunleavy hates gay people so much. What have we ever done to him?"
As if the Bush Administration was running short of national
security-related embarrassments, it became known this week that late last year the U.S.
President approved changes to the rules governing security clearance eligibility --
changes that may make lesbians and gays vulnerable to discrimination. In
1997, guidelines established by the Clinton Administration said that sexual
orientation "may not be used as a basis for or a disqualifying factor in
determining a person's eligibility for a security clearance." That specific protection
was missing in an 18-page document distributed December 29th without public
notice. The revised guidelines say that security clearances cannot be denied
"solely on the basis of the sexual orientation of the individual." Under the
old rules, sexual behavior involving a criminal offense, an emotional disorder,
the potential for coercion, or a lack of judgment were considered causes for
concern. The new rules approach the matter from the other direction, saying
that sexual behavior that is "strictly private, consensual and discreet" could
"mitigate security concerns." Subtle distinctions to be sure, but as Steve
Ralls of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network pointed out to the Associated
Press, "In the law, subtlety can have even unintended, major consequences."
Suspecting more insidious intentions, Human Rights Campaign President Joe
Solmonese said that the new rules again raised questions about "this
administration's commitment to fairness and equality," and called for an immediate public
explanation of why the changes were made.
Veteran activist Frank Kameny, who organized protests against the anti-gay
and lesbian security clearance policies in the pre-Stonewall era, told the
Washington Blade that he felt the current changes are not significant since the old
safeguards are still in effect. But Rob Sadler of Federal GLOBE, an
organization representing queer federal employees, expressed concerns about the
ramifications of the new language in a system that sometimes traps gays and lesbians
in a "Catch 22" situation.
The rightwing American Family Association -- or AFA -- has reinstated a
boycott intended to stop Ford Motor Company from advertising in publications
aimed at queer readers. This week the AFA, in coalition with what it said are 18
other anti-queer groups, announced that they're reinstating the
previously-threatened and then withdrawn boycott, claiming Ford had reneged on "an agreement
to stop funding homosexual organizations and activities and advertising in
homosexual media," AFA chairman Donald Wildmon said in a statement. But Ford
plans to continue advertising in the queer media. "We've always been open to
dialogue," company spokesperson Kathleen Vokes told the New York Times, "but our
position is that we will continue treating all with respect."
And finally, a gay male couple in Massachusetts is recovering nicely from
their shared surgery. In what's believed to be the world's first
husband-to-husband transplant, Bill Mokeler donated his kidney to Paul Sagon on Valentines
Day to liberate him from the dialysis machine he had relied on since 1998.
Mokeler had to give up painkillers for agonizing arthritis prior to the
surgery, but he told the Boston Herald, "The pain I endured was nothing in
comparison to what [Paul] had to endure with his kidneys."
At last report there have been no complications from the surgery as the
couple recuperates at home with their two dogs and cat.
Samiya Bashir of the U.S. equality group Freedom To Marry said it is
fortunate for these men that they live in Massachusetts and are legally married.
"Conservatives can hopefully look at this case," she said, "and see that we are
real people and see that the level of commitment we have to each other is no
more and no less than any other couple."
Mokeler discovered in October that he was a good donor match, and told Sagon
he had a present for him on their first wedding anniversary. Said Sagon: "I
was expecting a DVD or some clothes."